Matthew 6:11 - Give us today our daily bread.
So many times in our prayer life, we concern ourselves with matters of the future: a future job, relationship, aspiration, wealth, goal, etc. Yet, in Jesus' exemplar prayer, he prays about the concern for the day, on that day. This shows a constant dependency and trust upon God for our provision.
While in the wilderness, God miraculously provided the Israelites with manna, or bread from heaven, for each day. However, if they tried to store it, they would awake to a jar full of maggots (Exodus 16). God did this to show Israel that He could provide for their daily need in a world where all hope seemed lost. However, they had to trust in Him daily. Their lack of trust was shown by their hoarding up His provision for the future.
How often we are like the Israelites! We hoard up God's provision for the future instead of trusting in Him to supply us with what we need for the day and therefore forfeit living generously for His kingdom. While we should be wise with what God has given us, when we begin to trust in our own means of storing rather than openly laying out all we have before God as a daily offering in order to ask Him to provide for us again the following day, we act in disobedience.
The challenge for to day is to look at your own life and evaluate whether you are truly trusting God to provide for today. Are you going to him daily, asking Him to meet you needs? Are you praying more about future concerns or matters of the present? If we focus our prayer life on how God is going to provide for us in the future, we miss out on how He is presently at work. Today, if you no longer are trusting in Him, how can you get back to the point of reliance?
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